


Metal and Heart Lines

by Cai_Artz



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Accidental Marriage, Angst, Enemies to Lovers, F/M, Fluff, Friends to Enemies to Lovers, Hurt/Comfort, accidentally, the Master is sad, they get married, vegas marriage but not really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-11
Updated: 2020-02-11
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:07:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22665988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cai_Artz/pseuds/Cai_Artz
Summary: The Doctor and the Master wake up married and have no memory of it happening. Revelations come to light.
Relationships: The Doctor/The Master (Doctor Who), Thirteenth Doctor/The Master (Dhawan)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 161





	Metal and Heart Lines

**Author's Note:**

> some angst followed by some light fluff because why not! Based off a prompt I got on tumblr

When the Doctor woke up that morning her first thought was, okay, this isn’t my bed. The second thing she thought happened as she opened her eyes and shifted, only to be met with a solid form blocking her from rolling over. Someone’s arm was around her waist. Her fight or flight kicked in almost immediately, she sprang out of the bed within seconds but her actions had caused both her and the other person to fall to the floor in a heap of tangled legs and arms. The groan the mystery man lets out is familiar, too familiar. With a gasp the Doctor untangles herself from him, sitting up and looking down upon the Master’s groggy form as he blinks the sleep out of his eyes and surveys the room. “What..the hell?” he mutters, pulling himself into a sitting position. For a moment it seemed like time had frozen, the two aliens sat on their knees staring at each other in utter confusion, and then the Master blinked, and all hell broke loose. 

“What the hell are you doing here!?” the Doctor snapped, standing on wobbly legs. A massive pain spread through her head, she shut her eyes tight and tried to find its source. Hangover, she had been drunk. 

“Me!? What about y-” the Doctor opened her eyes and found the Master frozen, staring at the ring on the finger he was pointing at her so accusingly. “That wasn’t there yesterday…” The Doctor gulped, oh no. Slowly, she lifted her hand, her eyes trailed down to her ring finger, and she found herself staring at a matching ring upon her hand. 

“We didn’t…” she mutters.

“Oh,” the Master’s confused stare turned into an amused one, a grin slowly spread on his face as his eyes locked with the Doctor’s, “but we did.” 

As the Doctor scrambled to grab her things and get away from him as quickly as she could she also scrambled to remember why she was ever there in the first place. The Master was quick to catch up to her as she raced out of the apparent hotel they were in and onto the busy streets of a city she failed to recognize right away. Luckily, the Master had recognized the city, and the planet, and the fact that his last incarnation had been banned from traveling to both. “The gift of a new face,” he said as the Doctor pulled out her sonic and proceeded to try to locate her TARDIS. The Master couldn’t seem any less worried, his anger having faded in favor of glee as soon as the Doctor had begun to get increasingly upset. He followed her towards her ship. She could only hope that her friends were not inside, or worse, lost within the city somewhere. 

“How did we even end up here? Where’s your ship?” she asked as she pushed passed people, tugging the Master along by the cuff of his sleeve. The Master merely shrugged, offering no explanation though she was sure he could remember about as much as she could about the situation. As they turned into an alleyway and neared the ship a sudden flash of memory hit the Doctor in full force. She could only see bits and pieces, a small chapel, someone muttering in broken Gallifreyan, the grin of the Master’s drunken face. She came back with a gasp, leaning against the Master’s weight as her vision cleared. Quickly, she shoved off of him. “We got married.”

“Yes dear I’ve gathered,” the Master snarked, there was a bite to his words she couldn’t place.

“No! N-not just married by the customs of this planet but married by Gallifreyan law!” the Master’s ever-present grin seemed to drop almost instantly, his gaze turned cold, in a flash she was shoved against the brick wall of the closest building.

“I cannot be married to you,” he growled, but there was something deeper to his threat. The Doctor tried to get a fix on the hidden meaning of his words but he spoke immediately after, “we need to fix this. Now.” with two hands on his chest the Doctor shoved him away from her.

“We can’t! The only way to do that is at a Gallifreyan court and thanks to someone Gallifrey is fucking gone!” the Master had the nerve to flinch at her words, his gaze fell to the floor. “You think I want this!?” the Doctor continued, “you think I want to be married to you? To be in any way associated with you!?” 

If the Master could shrink in on himself and collapse she’s sure he would have, his tough exterior melted before her eyes, his gaze held to the ground as he took a step back from her like her words had punched him in the gut. She felt bad. For a moment, she was staring at her friend again, not the guy who destroyed her planet, but the one riddled with nightmares and fear and a sound he couldn’t escape from. She shook her head, no this wasn’t the friend she once knew, she couldn’t let him get to her like this. Pulling her keys out from her pocket and opening the TARDIS doors she pushes them open and leans against the side of the ship. “Are you coming?” she asks. The Master’s eyes flick from her to the ship, then back towards the opening of the alleyway. 

“No,” he says finally, “after all, you wouldn’t want to be seen with me.” The Doctor frowns, reaching out she grabs his arm before he can pull himself away.

“I’m sorry,” she says, sincerity laced her voice, she could feel the Master flinch beneath her fingers. “We’ll figure this out…” she says, leading him gently to the open doors. 

“Liar,” the Master says, but he follows her inside anyway. The doors shut once the two Time Lords are safely inside the TARDIS’ walls and the Doctor has made her way over to the console. 

“Try to remember what happened as best as you can, maybe there’s something we missed.” 

“I can’t!” the Master groans, leaning against the crystal pillars he clutches his head, “it’s just flashes.”

“What do you see?” the Doctor sidles next to him, waiting as he clenches his eyes shut and breathes heavily through his nose. 

“Just, you. We were at a club somewhere, you must have found me.” the Doctor nods, waiting for him to continue. “Then, we got drunk. Or, I got more drunk than I already was.” he opens his eyes, shaking his head as if dispelling the memories from his mind. The Doctor sighs, sure she was glad she had found him but giving the current circumstances she’d rather not have. The Master doesn’t meet her gaze, instead, he pushes himself off the pillar and circles the console. “Let’s just pretend this never happened, I’m sure you’ve been married before. Won’t be hard to do it again.” 

“Stop that,” the Doctor makes her way towards him, but he avoids her with ease. 

“Well we can’t exactly get a divorce so let's just forget it. And if you ever find yourself wanting to get married again just find a nice little planet where they won’t stop you.” 

“Master-”

“And I’ll just be on my merry way, and we never have to see each other again-”

“Koschei!” the Master’s mouth shuts with an audible click at the mention of his name. The Doctor finally catches up to him, taking a hold of his hand. He looks like he wants to pull away, her grip tightens. “I thought you weren’t the one who runs,” she teases. 

“No,” he bites, “but I’m giving you a chance to.” the Doctor bites her lip, considering her options for a moment. She had him back, and that’s exactly what she had wanted, and maybe this would give them a chance to fix what went wrong to start over. She wanted that more than anything. Gently, she squeezes his hand, lifting her free one to his cheek. 

“I’m not running now,” she says as he sucks in a shuddered breath, “we can work this out, you and me.” the Master stares at her apprehensively, his mouth opens as if he wants to say something but he closes it again. “It’s just marriage Master, nothing major needs to change.” Her words are meant to reassure him, but for a moment it seems like they do the opposite. He recoils, pulling his hand from hers. She tries to reach out again, but he’s speaking before she can get anywhere.

“Do you understand how long I’ve wanted this?” he asks. He looks like he’s waiting, maybe for her to yell at him, to be disgusted. When she does nothing, he continues, “all our lives Doctor, that’s how long.” He takes a deep breath, then releases it letting his shoulders relax, “but it’s never me who gets you in the end,” his voice wavers, “I’m meant to be the bad guy. I can’t control how destroying makes me feel, it’s like an itch I can’t scratch,” he scratches his bicep for reference, staring into the space beside her, “you’re an itch I can’t scratch..” the Doctor reaches forward again, placing a hand atop the one on his arm, feeling it settle beneath her. “You’ve always been what I wanted. But I don’t want it like this.” 

Before she can think, she’s pressing a kiss to his cheek. It’s soft, barely there, but his eyes widen regardless and he looks to her for an explanation. She takes his hand again, lifting it to her lips to press a kiss to his knuckles, then turning it to kiss the inside of his wrist. Then he’s leaning down and she’s kissing him instead. It's soft, tentative, almost like he’s afraid she won't be there when he opens his eyes. The kiss is slow, his hands find their way to her waist and when they pull apart he’s leaning his forehead against hers with his eyes still squeezed shut. “You know I want you to,” she whispers, her breath ghosting his skin, “always have..we just fell off at some point. I want to get back.” The cold metal of the ring pressed the skin of her waist is a tingling reminder of the life she wants to have with him. She knows he feels it too when her hand is on his neck, and her ring tingles against the nape. When she’s kissing him again, the feeling of their lips is coupled with a pleasant cold against both their skin.


End file.
